Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 1664

Materials Matter in Mechanical Engineering at RIT

S. K. Gupta and M. R. Scanlon Department of Mechanical Engineering

Success in design and manufacture of a product depends critically on the properties of materials selected. For a given material, the set of properties desired during processing may be quite different from that needed in service. Thus, a mechanical engineer needs to know about the properties, performance and processing of a wide range of materials, and be able to use this knowledge in designing a product. Eight years ago, our department initiated major laboratory development and curricular changes to revitalize the materials sub-curriculum1,2 and its integration in students’ design activities3. This paper describes briefly the curricular innovations, challenges encountered, and their impact on the preparation and performance of our students.

Curricular Innovations

Science of Materials: A new course 273: Introduction to Chemistry of Materials + 274: Lab was developed to replace the traditional second chemistry course. This new course with the co- requisite lab course focuses on solid materials, and provides a better overview of polymeric materials. Thus, the new course sequence [ 208: College Chemistry I → 273+274: Chemistry of Materials → 344: Materials Science ] provides students a better background in scientific aspects of materials. 344 has been revised accordingly to provide a deeper insight into the structure, properties and processing of metallic materials. In addition, students are introduced to advanced materials such as composites and ceramics.

Design and Manufacturing with Materials: Recognizing that engineers select material/process combinations from those with which they are most comfortable, another course sequence [ 343: Materials Processing → 311: Computer-aided Design → 464: Design for Manufacture ] was streamlined. Each course in this sequence culminates in an individual or team project. In 343, students obtain hand-on experience with lathes, milling machines, drill presses etceteras. In 311, students learn a computer-aided design software such as Pro Engineer, and also learn geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. The course is being split into two courses to better accommodate students transferring into our program from other universities and community colleges. 464 introduces students to the concurrent or simultaneous engineering approach to product design, manufacture and assembly. Students become skilled in software techniques to calculate assembly design efficiencies, part and part tooling costs.

Design Electives in Materials: To address the wider range of materials becoming available to an engineer, the department developed a new course 644: Introduction to Composite Materials. In recent years, a significant number of our seniors took 515: Plastics Processing Technology and

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Gupta, S. K., & Scanlon, M. R. (1998, June), Materials Matter In Mechanical Engineering At Rit Paper presented at 1998 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--7274